{"id":651,"date":"2009-12-22T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skepticblogs.com\/justinvacula\/2009\/12\/22\/times-leader-articleinterview-1222\/"},"modified":"2009-12-22T11:59:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T15:59:00","slug":"times-leader-articleinterview-1222","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/2009\/12\/22\/times-leader-articleinterview-1222\/","title":{"rendered":"Times Leader Article\/Interview – 12\/22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This post contains an article — no longer available — concerning the Luzerne County Courthouse separation of church and state issue I was involved with.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
December 22, 2009<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nativity returns, joined by Santa<\/a><\/h2>\n

Religious items had sparked suit threat<\/h3>\n

By Jennifer Learn-Andes<\/a> jandes@timesleader.com<\/a>
\nLuzerne County Reporter<\/p>\n

The Nativity scene and menorah are back on the Luzerne County Courthouse lawn, surrounded by some new secular decorations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Added were Santa and Mrs. Claus, two reindeer, some candy canes, a little elf handling mail for Santa, a Christmas tree and signs that say \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d and \u201cHappy Kwanzaa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passing motorists honked in support.<\/p>\n

The Nativity and menorah had been removed Wednesday after a litigation threat from the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. After a huge public outcry about the removal, county officials accepted an offer for free legal representation from the Wilkes-Barre law firm Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald.<\/p>\n

Though a suit may result, the county and Rosenn firm have attempted to work with both organizations to reach an agreement on a display that does not violate the constitutional separation of church and state, said county Solicitor Vito DeLuca.<\/p>\n

Justin Vacula, the King\u2019s College student who initiated the complaint about the display, watched county workers as they set up the display Monday morning and said he is satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the display is great. They put up other things. They\u2019re doing it right this time. The manger isn\u2019t isolated and illuminated at night over everything else,\u201d Vacula said.<\/p>\n

He jokingly said that the only thing missing is a Festivus pole, a reference to a fictitious holiday mentioned on the TV sitcom \u201cSeinfeld.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vacula said he has received \u201ca lot of hate mail from loving Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not representing their religion very well. I\u2019ve received a lot of threats \u2013 a lot of after-death threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He does not regret his decision, saying people must be willing to speak out and become educated about the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was worth it. The courthouse should have done it right the first time, but now they\u2019re doing it right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The removal of the Nativity and menorah has sparked two protests at the site.<\/p>\n

Inspired by these demonstrations, Dupont resident William Clarke arrived there Monday morning and paced the sidewalk in a Rudolph costume to criticize county Treasurer Michael Morreale, who was recently charged with a summary offense of deer hunting over bait.<\/p>\n

Morreale has said he did not know the bait was there.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t bait me. Santa needs Rudolf (sic) for X-mas,\u201d Clarke\u2019s sign said.<\/p>\n

Community activist Gene Stilp encourages people to gather on the courthouse lawn at 4 today to celebrate the return of the Nativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be thankful and gracious,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Learn-Andes<\/em>, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post contains an article — no longer available — concerning the Luzerne County Courthouse separation of church and state issue I was involved with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,25,31,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hate-mail","category-me-in-the-media","category-nativity","category-separation-of-church-and-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}